King for a Day
by 157yrs
Summary: "Wanna play a game with us?" The thing asked, grinning. "Hollow." She hissed. There was a small pause. "Hello Rukia..." Rukia meets Ichigo's twisted hollow. *old post*


Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach

The situation was bad. After chasing the illusion of a hollow, the two soul reapers ended up falling into a trap laid out by a soul pirate. A creature that stole and traded other souls for profit.

Now they were stranded in the endless hour glass that served as a dark prison by it's occupant. The rule was: someone had to stay and the soul pirate decided that the two soul reapers would fill in nice for him.

The attacks came one after another.

One hit his left arm hard, uttering it completely useless. Every time he was hit with a new strike his body would become more numb and unresponsive. The wounds didn't even hurt anymore.

There was a lot of blood.

Absently, Ichigo's eyes strayed to his companion who lie face first on the ground a few feet behind him.

"Rukia." The soul reaper muttered under his breath. He wasn't sure how bad her injuries were, but the last attack had sent her flying and she had yet to get up. The enemy that had so ruthlessly attacked them claimed that his special attack could render the spirit dormant and make it officially unresponsive to movement and awareness.

Rukia had been a perfect demonstration of that.

"You should never let down your guard, boy!" The soul pirate shouted loudly, before swinging his scythe into Ichigo's middle while the soul reaper had been distracted. For a moment, the soul pirate was sure that the boy would finally double over in defeat, but to his amazement, Ichigo merely sputtered some blood out and took a leap back to regain his composure.

"Nice try, pirate, but I don't go down so easily." The human boy supplied to his enemy, arrogantly.

"Curse it all! Why won't you go down? A normal person would be finished by now! One blow should have been enough! Why are still standing?" The pirate demanded, heatedly. Ichigo smirked at his words, even as his vision began to blur.

"Not yet, I can still beat him." Ichigo muttered to himself.

_Clearly. _Came the sarcastic reply. Ichigo visibly staggered when his darker self replied.

"No, I don't need your help." He told it firmly, watching in dismay as the soul pirate brought up his scythe for another round of slashing and then charged head on.

_Yes you do. _It grinned back at him.

_Whether you want to admit it or not, at this rate we will both be destroyed because of your lack of strength. Unlike you, I am unwillingly to die so easily. Now stand aside._

"No." Ichigo bit out, his knees buckling under him. Distantly he realized the soul pirate was swinging his scythe over Ichigo's kneeling form, prepared for landing him the final blow.

_Yes. _Came the other's reply.

"But Rukia..." Ichigo reasoned to himself. He could feel his darker self frown with impatience and annoyance.

_No harm will come to the girl. Now let me out. _It practically growled.

"Fine." Ichigo reluctantly admitted.

"But I'll be back as soon I recover."

_Of course, partner. _It replied smoothly, absently gaining control over Ichigo's left arm that had been wounded earlier. Inches above his head, the arm caught the oncoming scythe bare handed and shoved it back hard.

"What?" Asked the soul pirate in disbelief that Ichigo had somehow managed to block his attack.

"Rukia better not get hurt." Ichigo continued on, somehow finding the strength to stand.

"What are you talking about?" Asked the pirate in obvious confusion at the soul reaper's mumbling.

_I don't care about the girl. Let me out to fight! _It pleaded with a brink of insanity.

"Because if you do anything..."Ichigo lost consciousness and drifted, leaving his darker self in his stead.

"I thought he'd never shut up." Came the same yet entirely different voice of Ichigo. His head was bowed, obscuring the soul pirate's view of his face.

Immediately, the soul pirate was assaulted by a different spiritual pressure. Where Ichigo's power once flowed with great force and light, his power now took on a dark cool presence that was more endless in mystery than it once had been.

"What is this?" Demanded the pirate in growing alarm.

"What have you done, boy?" He demanded again. Ichigo only laughed in response, allowing the soul pirate to finally see his opponents face once more. What he saw made his blood turn cold.

Instead of the soul reaper's pathetic yet determined human face, the boy's face was covered entirely by a white grinning mask with red stripes surrounding the eyes. The mask's expression was maddening.

"Vermin." It whispered threateningly to the soul pirate, tossing Zangetsu to the ground. It wouldn't need the swords assistance for such a weak prey.

"What? I thought you were human, boy! Not a hollow" The soul pirate shouted, clearly not pleased with the line of events. Seeing he was now fighting what he assumed to be a hollow. It would make defeating the boy or whatever he was all the harder for the soul pirate. The masked Ichigo snorted, not entirely agreeing with the man on the subject of him now being a hollow.

"It doesn't matter what I am." Began the taunting cool voice of masked creature.

"Because in a few minutes you'll be dead anyway." He jeered, before disappearing all together only to reappear in front of the anxious soul pirate.

"I'll take that, if you don't mind." He smirked, grabbing the scythe and crushing under his unforgiving grip.

"Impossible." The soul pirate shrieked. Unfortunately, the masked Ichigo's next attack brought a surprising hand of claws into the gut of the soul pirate rendering him nearly lifeless.

"You fool." The soul pirate choked out, spitting up blood on his hands and knees under the masked Ichigo's hard stare.

"No one was supposed to die, only replace me in my prison...now that...now that I am to die...there will...be...no escape for the two of you!" The soul pirate laughed with what would be his last victory, before the masked Ichigo grew angry and then proceeded to slice the soul pirate into tiny pieces with his newly gained clawed hands.

His victory was quick and left a hollow feeling in his gut. The blood in his mouth – from his partner no doubt - did nothing to quench his thirst for destruction, if anything it left a far more pungent taste than what he thought blood should taste like.

"Now what?" The masked enigma asked himself. Frowning, the creature looked around only to realize that he was, true to pirates words, still stuck in the dark prison.

A low moan caught his attention and turning around, the creature was again reminded that he was not alone.

For a millisecond, the temptation was great. It would only take a second to end, in his opinion, the girl's miserable life. She was nothing but a burden that couldn't carry her own weight around. Under his observation, the girl appeared to rely greatly on Ichigo for protection. Too much, as it would seem that his partner was defective as well as distracted around the girl.

The dark nameless creature had never had the privilege of meeting the one responsible for giving the real Ichigo's spiritual pressure and in affect creating his own existence. Still, he knew from his partner's memories that the girl had given up her own spiritual pressure and was left with nothing but mere scraps of it and that alone was reason enough to put the girl out of her misery.

Of course then there was the king of their castle -vessel - to deal with. The nameless creature knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that his partner would be furious with him should anything happen to the girl. So decidedly, the masked creature concluded that he would rather spare himself the wrath of an angry king and simply ignore the girl.

After all, he had promised not to harm the girl but that didn't mean he had to help her either. Sniffing in contempt, the masked Ichigo made to walk away, only to realize that he couldn't just leave the girl.

The instinct angered him and for a moment, the masked creature suspected that the king was trying to regain control of his -castle - body.

"No," he told himself.

"I am in control now. I am the king. At least for a while." he whispered. And then feeling foolish for speaking to no one, for the real Ichigo recovered in silence deep within the recesses of his mind completely unaware, the masked creature shut up.

Grudgingly, the dark enigma went over to Ichigo's fallen companion and gave her the most withering look.

"Why does he protect you!" He demanded coldly to her. Of course there was no response and absently the creature was forced to wonder if the girl would ever recover from the attack.

Sighing in aggravation, the dark Ichigo reached up to remove his mask so that he could give the girl a visible glare. Effortlessly it slipped off and into the creatures awaiting hands. Curious, seeing that in his spiritual form, the mask had always been on and that he had never attempted to take it off before. The king too, had tried to take their mask off on several occasions, only to struggle or fail altogether with the task. It was a bit amusing to succeed in something that the king had struggled or failed to do, even if it was a small deed such as taking off their mask. Of course he couldn't deny that without his mask, the creature seemed to be able to think much clearer.

"Rukia!" He recalled suddenly from his partner's memories. Slipping his mask into the folds of his middles wraps, the nameless creature moved to kneel in front of the girl.

"What a weak thing you are." He exclaimed, digging into the king's memories of the girl.

"You make _him _weak too." The creature said, referring to Ichigo with such a distasteful tone. Leaning in closer, he leered at her.

"You make us weak." Still the girl remained unresponsive and after several quiet moments, the creature reached over to pick up the girl, refusing to admit that his partner's thoughts and desires concerning the girl were his own as well. Instead the dark Ichigo entertained the thought of the girl's usefulness to him as he slung her over his right uninjured shoulder.

Clearly, he alone would not be able to escape the dark prison. Waiting for his partner to regain control and assist in escaping was out of the question. Excusing the girl's – Rukia's – presence as a necessity for her knowledge on the subject of escape comforted him.

Frowning, the dark enigma looked around. There was nothing but endless night. Fortunately, both he and Rukia created their own luminosity from their spiritual pressure, but aside from that their was no light and after Rukia had fallen, her light had diminished. The endless ground of nothing stretched on forever. The creature estimated that it would be a miracle to walk and actually make it to the walls that made up their prison, seeing as how some sort of magic kept them in place no matter how far they traveled.

"How boring." He degraded.

And there was no shelter either. Granted there weren't any threats lingering in the darkness. There was nothing. Still, the dark Ichigo preferred _anything _that would serve as a shelter for them seeing as how Rukia would need a place of safety to recuperate – not that he needed any shelter of course.

"This is ridiculous." He growled, shaking off his outer black robe with his left arm and simultaneously holding Rukia with his right.

"I should be killing things. Not saving them." Lying the girl down over his black robe on her back, the creature took a step back. To the best of his knowledge and his partner's, neither of them had much healing knowledge or ability making them almost completely useless to Rukia's aid.

The dark enigma growled at the thought of being weak and useless. For there must be something he could do.

Looking around, the creature went over to Zangetsu and picked it up. He refused to admit that he had made an error and almost forgotten his weapon. Arrogantly, he swung it at the ground and created a spark with the weapon's own spiritual pressure. Eventually the spark turned into a full blazing flame.

If the dark Ichigo was going to force himself to clean up Rukia's wounds, he sure as heck was going to need extra light to do it. Fortunately, Zangetsu had it's own spiritual pressure that served in more ways than just in battle.

"Oh, hell." He muttered to himself, after glancing over the girl's injuries and coming to the realization that he had no bandages or equipment to help her.

"This is just perfect." He muttered sarcastically as he ripped a large section of his inner robe off and laid it in front of him. Glancing around the dark prison, the creature frowned.

"One minute I'm in the king's world and the next..." The dark Ichigo then proceeded to take the large ripped cloth and shred it into even small pieces that would better suit his need.

"I was released into a battle only minutes away from being completely destroyed, only to find myself in another prison." It growled lowly at the irony. In anger, the dark enigma reached over and roughly pulled the girl into his lap for better access to her injuries.

"How degrading. King for a Day!" He muttered, eying her injury on her forehead. It was a deep slash from the soul pirate's scythe that had left her defeated.

"A powerful, destructive being such as I lowered to the point of saving weak...weak..." His voice died off, as he seemed to fail to find the right words to describe the girl. After all, the dark creature liked to kill deadly threats but the girl seemed to be neither deadly or threatening, making her officially harmless to him.

"...To saving weak...weaknesses." He finished lamely, before swearing under his breath and taking a piece of cloth and using it to clean the girl's head. Once satisfied, he growled again and then proceeded to wrap the girl's forehead with another strand of cloth from his robe, careful of cutting her with his claws.

"Man, what a drag. The king better not hear about this." He threatened to the unconscious girl. Absently, he mused over what a tiny thing she was! So small and light. He could, quite literally break her in half over his knee if he wanted to.

Thoughts of others destruction usually entertained him, however the same affect could not be said when the subject was Rukia. Of course, the creature couldn't put his finger on, or understand why the thought of her own destruction made him uncomfortable. He supposed it had to do with the king and how his partner's feelings influenced his own.

His partner's relationship with the girl, was deemed as something of a mystery. They were closer than companionship, yet not quite as intimate. The dark enigma dared not to entertain any more on the subject, less he encounter something more disturbing that could influence him as well.

"Disgusting." He glowered, before taking the girl and placing her back on his black robe, lying face first on the ground. Though he would have preferred to leave her, the injury on Rukia's back could not be ignored. After the initial attack to her head, the soul pirate had slashed at her back and sent her flying into the air only to leave her defeated on the ground.

As the dark creature went to retrieve some more cloth to treat Rukia's wounds, grumbling all the way, a sudden thought struck him. Nearing to her in an effortless glide, he eyed the slash of her wound thoughtfully. It started at the nape of the right side of her neck and went all the way down to her left hip.

In retrospect, he suppose it should be only natural. After all, if he was a hollow, and granted that was a big if, he should enjoy the consumption of human souls if not at least the taste of blood. Now in all fairness, the dark enigma rarely had such opportunities to freedom, never mind soul devouring and if he was to be honest with himself had never even had the chance to _sample _the taste of blood, aside from his own.

Of course, his thoughts of soul devouring were not nearly as appalling, as his partner's were. But aside from that, the need to fulfill such act was surprisingly weak. Almost as if the deed itself was beneath him – as if he was a greater being than such savage hollows.

Leaning closer to the girl's wound, the dark Ichigo licked his lips.

"Just an experiment." He whispered assuringly to himself.

Now his theory on the subject was that he would indeed be above such acts as soul devouring and that he wouldn't find the taste of blood attractive in the least. That in and of itself would conclude that he was no hollow and indeed something different. After all, he was just _curious. _And if he indeed turned out to be a hollow who enjoyed the taste of blood and the thought of soul consumption...

The dark enigma shrugged and leaned back a bit to study the girl.

"Well then, she'll be the first one that I devour." He answered to himself arrogantly, absolutely refusing to think anymore on his words.

"You won't even feel it." He assured to the girl. Decidedly, he leaned in again to her back, his tongue extended, before thinking better of himself and pulling back.

"Whatever." He muttered, and then quickly extended his index finger and wiped lightly over Rukia's wounded back. Before he could back out, the dark enigma stuck the bloodied finger in his mouth, keeping his eyes closed.

After a moment, of silence the creature's eyes flew open, simultaneously pulling his finger out of his mouth.

"Of all the stupid things..." He growled to himself, before jumping up into a standing pose.

"Your blood tastes like...ugh!" He shouted out, making a face of complete disgust. Though he was quietly relieved that he had no taste for human blood and soul alike, the creature chose instead to express his relief with a quick spit to his right and then fixing Rukia with an accusing glare.

"Stupid girl." He muttered, before plopping down next to her and then removing the back of her torn and bloodied shirt so that he could properly clean her wound, without exposing her too indecently.

"Stupid waste of my time." He continued, rolling his eyes while he cleaned and wrapped her back up. Afterwards, the creature decided against putting the girl's tattered shirt back on and instead he -generously – lent her his black robe for clothing modesty.

"Finally." He said in aggravation, as he placed Rukia back on the ground, face up.

"Of all the things I could be doing as king for a day, I end up playing nurse and babysitting you!" He shouted and then turned away from the still sleeping girl.

"Lazy." He grumbled, casting one more scathing look over his shoulder at the girl before turning back around.

"Your just about as entertaining as Zangetsu is in company." He complained, in an obviously bored tone. Suddenly, another _brilliant_ idea hit him.

"Of course! Why didn't I think of that sooner?" Giggling to himself, the dark Ichigo went over to Zangetsu and swung it over his shoulder.

"I'll just blast us out of here." He grinned, congratulating himself for his excellent idea that was not at all influenced by his partner's thoughts of the weak girl's council. After all, if their dark prison was an hour glass, than the walls should be relatively fragile and easy to break...

"It's too bad the girl isn't awake to witness my brilliance. She better wake up soon. I don't think I can stand the company of such a weak, boring thing. I need to fight someone." He complained childishly, before swinging Zangetsu in front of him in a menacing pose. He only stopped when he looked over to find the girl awake and moaning his partner's name with something attuned to pain.

"Ichigo...don't. If you ...destroy... this place... we'll ...die too." She choked out obviously still too weak. A new anger washed over the dark creature at the girl's words. Trying to control it, for it would be no help if he killed Rukia, he stomped over to her and shrieked.

"Then what the hell do you want me to do?" He demanded crossly.

"How are we supposed to get out of this damned place?" He added hotly. Rukia squinted her eyes in obvious pain at his loud voice, but only managed to whimper in response. The dark enigma growled at her pathetic state, warring a battle within himself to kick her.

"Well!" He all but screamed at her, his patience nearly lost.

"Sorry, Ichigo. If I was better...I could use my spiritual pressure... to neutralize the spell holding us here...but I'm not strong enough yet." She bit out. The creature rolled his eyes at her words, and silently questioned her attuned awareness to his spiritual pressure. Didn't she recognize that his spiritual pressure was different to his partner's?

"So we have to wait until you recover before we can escape?" He demanded, all the while strange disturbing noises and ugly growls escaped his mouth. Rukia didn't seem to notice as her eyes were closed.

"Yes." She replied calmly. Judging from his partner's memories of the girl, Rukia was obviously anticipating some sort of rhetorical remark from him. Though he had no time for it. Turning away, he hid his oncoming onslaught of emotional anger and disappointment. Here he was with a rare opportunity for freedom, king for a day and it was wasted on such boring company and an even worse atmosphere with little to no action available. What a waste.

"Once you get us out of here, you'll be the first one that I kill." He promised to her in the lowest voice possible.

"Ichigo?" Rukia asked, now with a bit of concern in her voice. Frowning, the creature looked over to her silently. When she got no reply, Rukia weakly opened her eyes and turned her head in what she thought was Ichigo's direction.

At first nothing seemed amiss, but after her blurred eye sight returned to normality, she noticed three alarming differences in Ichigo.

One being that his spiritual pressure was darker, more menacing and almost completely unrecognizable.

Two, his eyes were black and yellow. The disturbing grin that began to stretch across his face as he walked painstakingly towards her didn't help any.

Lastly, she noticed that Ichigo's outer black robe as well as his inner white robed shirts were off. Now that alone would not usually call for alarm, being that she had seen Ichigo shirtless on many occasions, but this time there was a gaping hole over his chest where his heart should have been.

Despite her eye sight that seemed to make her head swarm, and her lack of balance, Rukia somehow forced herself to her feet.

"Wanna play a game with us?" The _thing _asked, grinning.

"Hollow." She hissed. Then without waiting for a reply, the soul reaper flash stepped - which was a rather slow move in the creatures opinion – and appeared right in front of the new threat and kicked him hard in the face. Or she would have, if he hadn't easily side stepped.

There was a small pause. His back was to her.

"Hello Rukia..." It responded quietly in an almost civilized tone.

"...all that red does look kind of nice on you, but still..." He mumbled.

Then without warning, the creature turned around and grabbed the girl by her neck and slammed her into the ground, hard. His weight digging into her, to the point of crushing. His grip, unforgiving.

"Stupid girl." He whispered to her, the venom easily depicted in his voice.

"You're going to reopen your injuries," He paused when Rukia began to choke, only to loosen his grip slightly.

"And after all that I've done for you." Emphasizing his point, the dark enigma grinned and flicked her bandaged forehead. Narrowing her eyes, Rukia bit back a wave of pain and then out of defiance spat at his face. She absolutely refused to speak to the thing.

There was another short relapse of silence and then the creature above her began to laugh, menacingly.

"Ok, the game. It's easy. I'll be the king," He said the word longer to emphasize his point. Then, eyeing Rukia,

"And you can be the prey that I'm about to hunt down and kill." He finished smugly.

Eager now to be rid of the dark creature, Rukia used the moment to shove his shoulders hard enough to force some space between them. Without waiting for his retaliation, the soul reaper attacked again, kicking him square in his middle gut and then leaping a safer distance away.

The creature before her only laughed harder at her antics as it began to stand.

"Oh what fun you are. And here I thought you were boring." He grinned. Suddenly the creature frowned, pulling an object out of his middle wrappings, Rukia gasped when she saw that it was a mask.

Or at least part of a mask. The top right of it seemed to have crumbled under the velocity of her last attack.

"Oh, crap." He muttered, scratching the back of his head as he studied the mask. Then suddenly, he sighed and dropped the thing. It crashed into tiny pieces when it hit the ground.

"Wonderful. The prey attacked. You just broke our mask, Rukia. But don't worry, it's easily repaired." He cheered sarcastically before pulling out Zangetsu.

"You know, I was hoping you'd be in better health before I killed you, but...oh well." He smiled before charging her. He was only mildly surprised when the girl pulled out her own zanpakutou and blocked his attack.

"As if I haven't already thought of that." He laughed as he swung his weapon again. Rukia struggled to blocked it, and while their blades clashed, Rukia growled to him,

"Hollow, what have you done with Ichigo? Where is he?" She demanded, using her weight to shove the creature off of her. To her displeasure, the creature only laughed and joked out,

"What's this? The lady decides to speak to me, and here I thought that she was too good for me!" He exclaimed, excitedly. It was hard not to fight back with all his strength. A challenge in and of itself.

"I haven't had this much fun in a while!" He exclaimed, dodging as Rukia swung her weapon at him. Reflex made him counter the attack, though he was very careful not to over tax his actions. She was such a weak and tiny thing! If he didn't pay attention, he could kill her by accident.

"King for a day!" He added. His laughter seemed to be such an empty and emotionless expression of enjoyment. Swinging Zangetsu, the creature brought the blade down onto the girl's unguarded back, reopening her injury. Her whimper of pain was almost completely drowned out by his words.

"Hollow...hmmmmmmm...no that's not right...devouring humans just doesn't appeal to me...try again." He hid the seriousness of his defense behind a wide smirk.

Not waiting for his reply, Rukia turned and staggered forward only to have her zanpakutou fly out of her hands and onto the ground farther away. Secretly, the creature was pleased that he had managed to remove the girl's weapon and still keep her on her feet. Trying to bide herself some more time, Rukia responded.

"I know you aren't Ichigo." She bit out, dangerously. The dark enigma in question laughed and disappeared, only to reappear right behind the soul reaper.

"Nope, well not really anyway." He giggled, kicking Rukia's feet out from underneath her and easily catching her in his arms.

"I'm more like his dark counterpart." He joked, as he wrestled Rukia into lying down, face first on the ground. That blood of hers was really starting to annoy him. He had to get her wound back under control before her blood made him wretch.

"Who are you!" Rukia demanded hotly.

"And where is the _real _Ichigo!" She added, appalled that the thing was actually touching her wound.

"Hah! Easy little thing." He snickered, as he very quickly removed the black robe he had lent Rukia. As she struggled, the creature continued.

"The king is busy right now, so I thought the horse could feel in for him. You should really be thanking me..." Rukia went completely still in confusion at his words. The enigma behind her took that moment to readjust her bandages so that they were properly aligned over the injury.

"...for saving your skin from that soul pirate." He finished, draping the black robe over her back again. As soon as he was finished, the girl jumped into the air.

"What do you mean _king_? Stop playing games with me _hollow_! Who are you and where is Ichigo!" She shouted, her last words coming out as a squeak as she lost her balance and fell back on her seat and into the creature's awaiting lap. The Ichigo look alike only laughed at her.

"Oh...it looks like...I've just...won! I've caught you!" He managed to get out, despite his menacing laughter.

"I...don't have...a name..." He choked out between giggles. Shocked and slightly embarrassed, Rukia tried to get up, only to find that the _thing _had grabbed her wrists and was holding her down.

"As for the king...well he'll be back soon. I can feel it." He finished in sarcasm. Rukia began to struggle in his grasp as his tone became more angry and menacing.

"I'm just holding down the fort until the boss shows up." He joked with thick bitterness.

"Still," His voice took on the familiar, empty cheerfulness as he smiled to her.

"This has been much more exciting than my usual visits. If only I had known about you earlier." He laughed. Rukia doubled her efforts of struggle when she heard him.

"Maybe it's time I did start fighting the king for more freedom...Especially if it meant I get to see you more...No wonder he protects you!" The creature mused, his voice almost completely flighty.

"You're sick!" Rukia shouted suddenly, trying and failing to escape his grasp. Eventually, she tired herself out and relaxed. Though he would have liked her to lean into him, her back was as rigid as a board and spaced as far away from him as possible.

"Let me go!" She hissed angrily, attempting, and failing, to look over her shoulder and give her captor a dark glare. The creature only laughed harder at her antics, snickering as his grip tightening ever so slightly around her wrists, careful not to hurt her. Leaning in leisurely, he grinned maniacally into her ear, and for a moment, Rukia thought that he was going to lick it.

"No." His barely contained voice was full of amusement and mock sensuality. Uncomfortable with his proximity, Rukia squirmed in his cross legged lap, only to earn another fit full of roaring laughter from the creature behind her.

It didn't matter anymore. It looked like his time was up. He could feel his partner's power fluctuating within him. It would only be a matter of seconds before the girl noticed it as well.

"Looks like my time as king for a day is up." He murmured.

_You bastard! What have you done? _

The creature grinned when he heard the king's question. Instead of answering him, the creature nudged the girl who had gone silent moments before.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Rukia." The said soul reaper gritted her teeth at how familiarly the _thing _said her name.

_Don't talk to her! _Threatened his partner, as the feeling of control slipped away from him.

"I look forward to seeing you the next time I'm free..." He promised to the girl lightly before losing awareness and then being cast back into Ichigo's consciousness. It was like exchanging one prison for another.

_Maybe next time I won't want to kill her._ _Still, the game we played was fun..._Were the last words the horse told to the king.

It goes without saying that the king did not reply.


End file.
